1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to communication systems and more particularly to client server communication systems in which communications resources provided to a retrieval request or to a connection to a particular server can be adjusted to reflect priorities.
2. Description of Related Art
Accessing the content of servers on a network, such as the World Wide Web (WWW), is often agonizingly slow. Response time may be so slow that users cancel their request for a page and select another page, perhaps that of a competitor. Getting enough text to the user quickly so that he may begin reading is important to prevent him from canceling his request. Reducing the initial latency from request to delivery of readable text will result in a more satisfying browsing experience for the user.
Data compression is known. Various data compression algorithms may be employed depending upon the type of data (text, image, video, audio) to be transmitted. Fortunately, many if not most network servers employ compression. Unfortunately, the latency problems associated with retrieving server pages continue to grow worse with increasing network usage.